Devil Rays (66-96)The Rays officially unveiled the plans for a new stadium on the St. Petersburg waterfront as well as the reconstruction of the Tropicana Field site. The St. Pete Times has an image gallery of what can be expected.

Most of the details have already been released, but some of the biggest remaining questions, concerning financing of the new ballpark, were addressed by Stuart Sternberg. While the plan does call for $60 million in revenue from the state as a result of the redevelopment of the Tropicana Field site, Sternberg emphasized that there would be no new taxes and any costs that are accrued over the $450 million proposal would be paid for by the team.

Next November, St. Pete residents may be asked to vote on a referendum to help fund a new stadium for the Rays. How the Rays perform on the field in 2008 could go a long way to determining the result of that vote. Therefore, expect the Rays to be more aggressive this off-season, than they have been the past couple of years. [TBO]

“In baseball operations, we’re trying very hard to insulate ourselves from [the Stadium referendum] ,” Rays executive vice president Andrew Friedman said Tuesday. “They’re very independent events, and it’s premature to factor that in at all into our line of thinking. Obviously if it gets approved it will at some point start to factor into our thought process, but how so and how much is yet to be determined. We feel a tremendous amount of pressure to improve this team independent of any outside factors, so that’s what we’re focused on doing.”

The St. Pete Times has a FAQ regarding the new stadium proposal. [tampabay.com]

A baseball website cannot have a regular feature called “Great Moments in Fleece History” and not include the Scott Kazmir trade from the Mets. And by the way, we are glad to see that the Kazmir trade helped the 2008 Mets win the World Series this season as so many Mets kept reminding us during the regular season. [MLB Fleece Factor]

With the Baseball Winter Meetings just around the corner, Bill Chastain gives us a rundown of the Rays needs and wants. [Devil Rays]

Brian Stokes tenure with the Rays is now officially over. Stokes was Designated For Assignment last week when the Rays tweaked the 40-man roster. Yesterday he was acquired by the Mets for cash. [Yahoo! Sports]